The truth is in here

What sort of literature relates to our current reality? Surely it is science fiction, providing us with a laboratory in which to study the modern world and the forces that hold it together or pull it apart.

Serious literary writers, at least in Europe, seem indifferent to the global market, computers, the power of the virtual economy and authoritarian control over communications. Their novels are mostly about an unchanging world of deeply personal stories, told as they might have been 50 years ago or 50 years from now - stories that focus marketably on love, passion and betrayal, with subdued lighting, pale colours, the smell of dust and of talcum powder. There are exceptions, but overall, the literary framework is excessively minimalist. This insipid style is seen as realistic, as holding the key to the truth, as the only form for respectable literature. Who cares if the author, in a hurry, types the work on a word processor and sends it by email? Who cares that new technology has halved book-production times? These vulgar innovations do not intrude on the stories; they might contaminate them, bring them down to earth. Realistic prose is timeless. Anything too close to our daily concerns must be dross.

Serious literature does have a doppelganger, crime fiction. City streets, urban life, social issues and conflicts are important to this genre, although (with a few exceptions) it pays little attention to the global ramifications of the “system”, to historical changes and shifts in our thoughts and behaviours caused by technological developments. Events are restricted to conflicts between a few individuals, driven by eternal passions - hate, vengeance, love and the quest for justice. The maximalist framework dissolves in minimalist treatment - corrupt, dubious or honest cops against corrupt, dubious or honest robbers.

The “system” has spread worldwide, and exerts remote, anonymous control over individual lives. In a single day a stupendous number of exchanges decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of people - a factory closes in France, a revolt breaks out in Indonesia, an Italian firm shifts production to Albania, a gambler wins millions of (...)